The Coonley Playhouse is definitely a significant building in Wright’s body of work. For being designed in 1912, it’s thoroughly modern, an assemblage of wall and roof slabs with bold, cantilevered roofs and rectangular openings that allow sunlight to play across the walls. It experiments with concepts that would later be used in many of Wright’s important Usonian houses. The interior space focuses on the central hearth, a signature in Wright’s houses. It was originally constructed as a small private school, but almost a century ago, in an early example of adaptive reuse, it was successfully converted to a comfortable single-family house. The current owners have meticulously restored, or when necessary recreated, the famous abstractions of balloons and confetti in the art glass windows that surround the central interior space.
Interested in this property? Contact The Mike McCurry Group: (630) 325-2800